A judge has thrown the book at a West Virginia couple convicted of treating their adopted Black children as ‘slaves.’ Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, and her husband Donald Lantz, 63, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms after being found guilty of subjecting five siblings, aged 5 to 16, to horrific abuse. The children were locked in a shed, forced to sleep on the floor, and made to use buckets as toilets.”
On Wednesday, Judge Maryclaire Akers handed down the maximum sentences in Kanawha County Circuit Court. Whitefeather received 215 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after 40 years. Lantz was sentenced to 160 years, with the chance for parole after 30 years. The couple was also ordered to pay $280,000 in restitution to the children.
The couple adopted the five siblings while living in Minnesota before moving to a farm in Washington state in 2018. In May 2023, they relocated to West Virginia, where their abuse came to light. The children were discovered locked in a shed in unsafe, unsanitary conditions.
“You brought them to West Virginia, a place I know as almost heaven, and you put them in hell,” Judge Akers told the couple before delivering the sentences. “This court will now put you in yours. May God have mercy on your souls because this court will not.”
The sentencing follows a January conviction on charges of forced labor, human trafficking, and child abuse. Whitefeather was also found guilty of civil rights violations for treating the children differently because of their race.
In court, the couple’s oldest daughter read an emotional letter she had written. “I don’t understand at all how you were able to treat any person the way you treated me and my siblings and then preach the name of God right after that,” she said. “I felt hopeless in those situations. I felt a lot of anger.”
Before sentencing, Whitefeather apologized to the court. “I have made mistakes, and I’m very sorry for that. I love my children and I have never done anything to harm them intentionally,” she said. Lantz also spoke, saying, “I would just like to say, children, I do love you.”
Victim advocate Brittany Leavitt read letters from the other children. The youngest daughter’s letter described how she was taught to mock her siblings and told they were bad. “Now in my new home, I see that everything was not right there…They were mean and kids should not be picked on by their parents. They should be loved,” she wrote.
The middle daughter wrote, “Hello, I am a little girl … and I am working on changing my life. I will be something amazing. I will be strong and beautiful. You will always be exactly what you are — horrible.”
The couple’s actions were discovered after neighbors in Sissonville, West Virginia, became concerned. They saw the children performing difficult chores, such as lifting heavy items, and noticed that the children rarely played outside. In October 2023, Lantz locked the oldest girl and her teenage brother in a shed while he left the property. When deputies arrived, they used a crowbar to free the children. Inside the house, they found the 9-year-old girl crying in a loft with no protection from falling. The children were dirty, smelled of body odor, and had visible signs of neglect, including sores on the oldest boy’s feet.
Authorities later learned that the children were often forced to sleep on the floor and were given only peanut butter sandwiches to eat. Some children were made to stand for hours with their hands on their heads, and the oldest boy and girl shared a room where they used a bucket as a toilet.
Defense attorneys for the couple argued that they were simply overwhelmed by the children’s behavioral issues, claiming they had requested help from the state’s child welfare agency. However, prosecutors pointed out that the couple failed to seek proper care for the children, even though a behavioral health clinic was nearby. The oldest boy is now receiving care at a psychiatric facility.
